


Douxie's Fall

by SidequestActive



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia
Genre: Gen, Wizards Spoilers (Tales of Arcadia)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26273932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SidequestActive/pseuds/SidequestActive
Summary: He wasn’t conscious as he fell, but everyone watching was. They were acutely aware as his body hurtled to the earth like a falling star. The briefest flash of blue light as he made impact was their only sign of life as precious seconds passed and he lay still, unmoving.After Douxie falls from the sky, his friends help him recover.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 175





	1. Chapter 1

He wasn’t conscious as he fell, but everyone watching was. They were acutely aware as his body hurtled to the earth like a falling star. The briefest flash of blue light as he made impact was their only sign of life as precious seconds passed and he lay still, unmoving. They reached him only moments after he hit the ground, yet already Archie felt hope slipping away like sand, and for a brief, terrible moment, he imagined a life without Hisirdoux by his side.  


Hisirdoux shifted, his eyes fluttering open. “Huh?”  


“Douxie!” Archie leaned his forehead against Douxie’s shoulder. “You brave, foolish boy.” Steve helped him sit up.  


“Everything hurts,” Douxie panted, leaning heavily on Steve. Steve moved to help him stand, but the moment he began to pull him up, Douxie gasped out a strangled, “No,” and sank back down to the ground. “I think I’ll just… sit here.”  


Claire paled. “You need help.”  


“We can take him to my mom,” Jim said, stepping forward. Human Jim.  


“Jim, is that really you? Or did I land on my head?” Douxie tried for a reassuring grin, but it came out as a grimace.  


“It’s really me,” Jim said, “try not to move.”  


“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Douxie muttered to the ground. He wondered idly if it was spinning for anyone else.  


“We’ll get you some help. Aarg, would you carry him? Carefully.”  


Aarg patted Jim on the head, tousling his hair, and then crouched beside Douxie. “Ready?”  


“Wait, wait. I don’t think… hold on.” Douxie stopped to catch his breath, already worn out from speaking. Trying to stand hadn’t exactly been pleasant, and he was certain being lifted off the ground wouldn’t be much better. “Can I maybe just lay here?”  


“No, we are getting you help.” Archie said sternly. “Aarg?”  


Douxie looked to Claire. “Find Zoe, she can help.” He just managed to get the words out when Aarg lifted him. Douxie gasped from the pain, too hurt to make a sound.  


“Douxie!” Archie shouted, his voice laced with a quivering mix of worry and fear.  


Hisirdoux didn’t get a chance to hear it before his eyes rolled back and he passed out in Aarg’s arms.


	2. Chapter 2

When Douxie woke up again, he was lying on a couch with Archie curled up on the armrest near his head, keeping a silent watch over him. There was a restlessness in the way Archie scanned the room, looking for threats. He was so focused on protecting Douxie that he didn’t notice the boy had already woken up.  


“It’s so good to have you back home again,” Dr. Lake hugged her son, human and whole and right there in front of her. Hisirdoux watched unnoticed as the scene unfolded before him, he was glad the two of them could have this moment together.  


Still wrapped in the hug, Jim noticed Douxie watching and smiled at him from over his mom’s shoulder. “You’re awake!”  


Dr. Lake turned her attention to Douxie, her arm still around Jim, reluctant to let go. “Hey there, how are you feeling?” Her voice was soft and gentle, and somehow Douxie felt safer just being in her presence. The Arcane Order felt just a little more distant than they had a moment before. He wondered if that was a mom thing. He wouldn’t know.  


“Can you talk to me?” she asked.  


Douxie took a shallow breath. “A little.”  


Archie shifted to get a better look at him. Douxie was in one piece at least, but he couldn’t help but feel responsible. He wasn’t there when Douxie needed him. The Arcane Order was unimaginably powerful, Archie was under no illusions about that, but surely there was something he could have done.  


“How long was I out?”  


“Not long, we only just arrived,” Archie answered gently, “the others are out looking for Zoe.”  


Dr. Lake cut in. “If you’re up for it, I’d like to ask you a few questions, just to make sure you’re okay. Is that alright?”  


“Okay.”  


“What’s your full name?” Dr. Lake may not have been wearing her white coat, but she had switched to full doctor mode.  


“Hisirdoux Casperan.”  


“What year were you born?”  


“1101”  


“November first? Of what year?”  


“That is the year.” Archie interjected. Dr. Lake blinked at him. That raised more questions than it answered, but this wasn’t the time – she had a patient in front of her – so she shoved that thought aside and moved on through the rest of the questions.  


“I don’t like not having x-rays, at the very least, but I can accept this as long as you stay still and don’t get any worse. If I see the slightest turn for the worse, you’re going straight to the ER. Do you understand me, young man?” She had the briefest hesitation as she said the word ‘young’, but by some miracle managed to still sound stern through to the end.  


Her tone caught Hisirdoux off-guard, she’d slipped right back into mom mode in the middle of speaking. “Yes, ma’am.”  


Before the last word left his mouth, shadows in the room deepened and converged into a dark portal near the door. Archie shifted into dragon form and stood protectively, prepared to leap into action at a moment’s notice. There was no need, however, as Zoe rushed through the portal, closely followed by Claire. When Zoe’s eyes found Douxie, he saw fury in them.  


Douxie was immediately reminded of the sorry state of Hex Tech and wondered if she had seen it yet. He tried to speak up, to make himself sound better than he really was, to sound normal, but what came out was a weak, “hey, Zoe,” and a half smile.  


“Don’t you start with me; you tell me what happened-.” Her voice broke and she put a hand over her mouth. It took her a few seconds to compose herself, but when she did her blue eyes had hardened to steel. “I’ve got work to do. Where’s the kitchen.” Jim pointed her to the next room and followed her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small note, when he says 1101 here, he's saying it like, "eleven-oh-one" which is why Dr. Lake thinks he's saying 11/01


	3. Chapter 3

Zoe unloaded the bag she brought on the kitchen counter. She began setting out jars, vials, and Tupperware of all shapes and sizes.

“Can you help him?” Jim asked.

“I’ve done this before. But he was never so…” Involuntarily, the image of Douxie lying motionless on the couch flashed before her eyes. He’d never sat that still in his life. She bit her lip, pushing the image aside, and focused on the task at hand. “It will help.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Have you ever made a potion before?” She spoke without so much as glancing up from the array of mysterious ingredients before her.

“Sort of, once. Do you need the bathtub? It’s upstairs.” Jim pointed over his shoulder toward the staircase in the next room.

At that, Zoe broke her attention away from the ingredients long enough to give him an incredulous look. “What? No. If you want to help, get me an egg.”

“On it.” Jim opened the fridge and found Nari sitting, scrunched up on the bottom shelf.

“Oh. Thank you,” Nari said, casually stepping out of the fridge and walking away to explore another room.

“You’re welcome?”

“Egg?” Zoe was busily peeling a narrow, burnt-orange husk that Jim, in all his cooking experience, couldn’t identify. He found that fact unnerving.

He hazarded one more question. After everything that happened, he had to know. “What will this do to him?”

“It should help jumpstart his own magic. Usually it’s like coffee for mages, but in this case, it should help his magic heal him on its own.” Zoe put her hand out toward him, impatient. “Egg?”

Jim relaxed, one less thing to worry about. “What’s next?” He handed her the egg. She dropped it into a glass, filled the glass with water, and added a viscous, brown liquid from another vial.

“Chopping board.” Zoe was already selecting yet another vial. This one had leaves as thin as blades of grass, with a small bulb on the tip of each.

Grabbing two chopping boards with the practiced fluidity of a chef in his home kitchen, Jim held one out to Zoe. “I can definitely help with chopping.”

Zoe eyed him suspiciously. “This one needs to be crushed carefully, but you can chop those. Small pieces. Do not lose any.” Zoe pointed an accusatory kitchen knife at Jim. She nodded toward a trio of plastic containers and Jim set to work.

He was glad to see the first ingredient was something he recognized: a simple russet potato. He set to work chopping and found that the kitchen knife felt natural in his hands. It was like coming home, in more ways than one.

“It’s precision work like this where a Hedgewitch really shines. Stuff like this isn’t easy for a Wizard – too much magic, it gets in the way – and Douxie in particular is terrible at potions.” Zoe started heating a pot of water on the stove. She looked over to check Jim’s work only to find he’d already finished chopping two of the three ingredients and was rapidly at work on the third. “Nice work,” she said. When the kid spun the knife in his hand and grinned like he’d rather be nowhere else, she felt the corners of her mouth twitch up just a bit. The moment was quickly overshadowed as her thoughts turned, of their own accord, back to Douxie lying still in the next room. She took the ingredients Jim had finished, along with her own, and added them to the pot.

“Listen. I need to know what happened. Claire said he… fell. But I saw what was left of Hex Tech, I know there’s more to the story.”

Jim wondered how much Douxie wanted her to know, and how much she’d already figured out on her own. “There was a fight. It got messy.”

“And he fell?” Zoe’s attention shifted, focusing intensely on Jim, and taking in every little twitch and expression as he spoke.

Jim wasn’t sure if Douxie wanted to keep her out of it, but she was already here. The Wizard had asked for Zoe by name and now she was involved, for better or worse. “It was a long fall. He came down with the castle that crashed into Arcadia.” Jim finished chopping the last ingredient and carefully passed the pieces to Zoe. “He held them off so everyone could get away.”

Zoe returned to stirring the pot, though perhaps more aggressively than before. She muttered something barely audible about self-sacrificing fools before she enchanted the potion. The contents of the pot glowed briefly pink, and she ladled out enough of the golden, brothlike liquid to fill a coffee mug.

Jim felt strange thinking about it all. His own memories of the events were hazy at best, but Claire and the others had filled him in on the way to the house. “We’re all here thanks to him.”


	4. Chapter 4

While Dr. Lake stepped out to call the others and tell them Zoe had been found, Claire pulled up a chair and sat by Douxie’s side. She leaned forward in her seat; eyebrows pinched with worry.

“Sorry for the trouble.” His voice was quiet, and he chose words sparingly due to the effort. That, along with the way he laid still on the couch, gave the impression of a person half asleep.

“Maybe worry about yourself a little more next time.” Claire offered up a reassuring smile, and he returned it in a lopsided way.

“You got Jim back, huh?”

“We did, we really did.” Claire quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I really thought we’d lost him there for a minute. I have no idea how it happened. I was trying so hard to bring him back, but then he turned to stone and just crumbled, and then Jim stepped out. Regular, human Jim.”

“That’s incredible. You did that, you know.”

“You mean I made that happen?” Claire’s eye’s widened. “I wasn’t even trying to use magic by then, I was just upset, and it was so overwhelming...”

“Well, magic is emotion.” Hisirdoux said.

“But how?”

“We might never know, really.”

Claire leaned back in her chair, thinking it over. When she spoke again there was a note of awe in her voice. “It’s because of you that we had that chance. Everyone made it back. Thank you, Douxie.”

“I’m just happy you’re all okay,” Hisirdoux said.

“Glad to have you with us again, Teach.” She smiled softly and reached out to put a hand on his arm. He winced at the contact, sucking in air through clenched teeth.

Archie leapt forward, flaring his wings. “Don’t touch him!”

Claire flinched back. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“It’s okay, don’t worry,” Douxie tried to reassure them, although the strained sound of his voice was not helping his case.

Archie sat back guiltily, shifting back into his cat form. “I apologize, I know you mean him no harm. It’s just, seeing him like this…”

“I understand. We all feel the same way.” Claire rubbed Archie’s head. “Are you sure you’re okay, Douxie? Can I bring you something?”

“I’m fine, both of you.”

“No, you’re not.” Archie wouldn’t look him in the eye. “And I’m sorry.”

“What?” Douxie furrowed his brow, confused.

“I should have been there. I should have helped you.” Archie’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You should never have had to face them alone.”

“Arch, it wouldn’t have worked with you there.” His voice was gentle and reassuring.

Archie stood taller, all the pride and determination of his kind layered on top of his worry and regret. “I may not be able to cast spells, but I can still be of use in a fight. I am a dragon. And I will protect my familiar.”

“No, that’s not it, Arch.” Hisirdoux glanced up toward the ceiling, anywhere but Archie’s eyes. “I didn’t expect to come back.”

Before Claire or Archie had a chance to process their shock into words, Zoe stomped through the doorway with a mug in hand, her lips curled into a snarl. “What am I here for, then? To pick up the pieces after you throw your life away?”

“Zoe? I-” He craned his head to see her as far as he could without too much pain, which functionally left him looking at her through the corner of his eye.

“Your life is worth more than that.” She circled around, furious, forcing him to look at her head on.

“It was my burden,” he began, repeating the words like a mantra. It sounded more like a plea than an argument.

She let out a breath and her shoulders sagged, exhausted. “You don’t have to bear that burden alone.” Hisirdoux tried to speak, to offer some explanation or retort, but no words came. In the silence, she passed him the mug, holding it up for him as he drank its contents.

“Thank you.” He sat up a bit, and his voice was already stronger.

Zoe cocked her head to the side and smiled softly. “Now when are you going to learn how to make this for yourself instead of calling me up every time you get hurt?”

“Aw, but when would I get to see you if I just made it myself?”

“You’re still abysmal at potions.”

He nodded along. “I am still abysmal at potions.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me till the end, hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
